Compact discs have gotten a bad rap from snooty audiophile experts. It’s undeserved. I read something this month that puts the topic into perspective.
What has prompted this entry is Stereophile’s Sept 2024 issue. The reviewer addresses his CD history starting on p23. I’m shocked at what I’m reading.
He says he was slow to dive into CDs because they sounded bad. Then he said that cassettes sounded better, and that the silence of CDs when musicians stopped playing was unnatural.
HUH?! Really?! This is disappointing coming from a “reviewer” who is supposedly your advocate in shopping for gear. Apparently, he’s never heard an acoustic piano.
For openers, when musicians stop playing in the real world, there is complete silence. In fact, the quietude between notes contributes to the clarity, statement, and often tension of a great piece on the piano in particular. This isn’t even debatable.
He’s welcome to his opinion that cassettes sounded better than CDs, but that’s absurd. The best cassettes by Nak and its compadres, played music through hiss with a gray, rather than black background. The wow and flutter and pitch irregularities of cassettes, disqualified the medium for a piano lover. It’s not even close. I sold cassette decks throughout their lifespan and know their limitations intimately.
You’re welcome to spin your vinyl. It’s fun collecting records for sure. But if you’re playing piano music, the noise of vinyl, with a record often cut off center, is a non starter. Toss in a wobbling cantilever or a dirty stylus…. The medium is disqualified for reproducing the piano without loads of interference. No thanks.
He writes that his CD player until 1993 was a portable Radio Shack. Seriously?! We had some very good players in the 80s and 90s from companies like Denon, California Audio Labs, and even transports/DACs from Rotel & PS Audio.
Judging the CD format with a Radio Shack player would be like judging LPs through a Crosley turntable.
After the Radio Shack CD player, he had a Teac, Oppo and $249 Onkyo off Amazon. He even ran the latter into a $14k DAC. Now he’s discovered a new Teac transport with two transformers and loves the sound of CDs. He concludes that it has taken 40 years of CDs to become good.
Ummm, NO. You missed the boat, bro.
It didn’t take 40 years for CD players to get good. It took HIM 40 years to understand that equipment matters- just as it does with playing records. We had fine players in the 80s. Of course they’ve evolved from there. CDs had great promise from day one. New technology allows them to sound better every day.
Let’s FF to today. It doesn’t take $17k to get an excellent CD player.
We have GREAT CD players today- from Atoll of France.
Atoll uses a Teac drive which shares DNA with the transport the reviewer loves. Atoll runs multiple transformers and linear power supplies. They have a generous amount of filter capacitance to deliver a rich, burnished flavor of sound. They use DACs which are run with no negative feedback and sound eminently musical.
You’ll love the sound of CDs through an Atoll player. The discs will sound better than the same music streamed.
By the way, the reviewer wondered why streaming doesn’t sound as good as CDs. Really? Seriously?!
When you stream, music has to go through zillions of miles of wire, switches and connectors. Streaming is convenient and I love the access to virtually any music. But all this caching limits sound quality.
When you’re playing your favorite music, quit fiddling around and play the silver disc. The sound will be as good as the master tape will allow.
And here’s a bit of a surprise… Mobile Fidelity has been selling ONE STEP LPs for a few years. Audiophiles en masse have recognized them as being the best sounding LPs we’ve ever had.
What audiophiles didn’t know… is that the MASTER was recorded to a digital file, from which the LPs were produced. Ultimately it was revealed that the LPs came from a digital master, and there was back lash from the LP community for MoFi not revealing this. The LPs continue to sell, and are the best sounding our industry has to offer. Let’s not be so pure about this… aversion to digital. Digital isn’t a dirty word. CDs can be FABULOUS!